Updated 3:23 am, Sunday, May 27, 2012

Shortly after 7 p.m., police say a suspect approached an admitted gang member near the Space Needle valet turnaround. Investigators say the suspect stated, “you from Yaks.” He took that to mean Yakima – an area known for gang violence.

Police say the admitted gang member, a Kent man, kept walking away, but the suspect hit him in the face with a skateboard.

The gang member who was struck then pulled a .22 caliber revolver from his pocket and shot in the suspect’s direction.

The shot hit the bystander in the right calf. He was rushed to Harborview Medical Center and is expected to survive.

The gunman and admitted gang member was arrested at the Seattle Center House, Seattle Police Det. Renee Witt said. Police also went to Fisher Plaza to review surveillance video, and staff there said the footage captured the suspect fleeing with a wounded forehead and wrapping the handgun in clothing.

The shooting suspect was booked into King County Jail. Police did not give additional information about the second suspect or other arrests.

The shooting that disrupted the Northwest Folklife Festival was the second in four years. At the 2008 festival, a woman and man were hit by a bullet discharged during a tussle between two other festivalgoers.

That shooting was ruled accidental and a Snohomish man was sentenced to 78 days in jail, time he had already served, after being convicted of two third-degree assault counts.

The incident prompted then-Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels to order a ban on handguns on city property. The move was vigorously opposed by gun-rights advocates, and two lower courts ruled the ban illegal, including the state Court of Appeals. The state Supreme Court affirmed those rulings in March.

Seattle has seen an unusually high number of aggravated assaults in the first five months of this year, and just more than six hours after the Seattle Center shooting a North Seattle homeowner was shot in the chest. He was rushed to Harborview with life-threatening injuries.

That incident happened in the 12300 block of 11th Avenue Northeast and police were searching for the suspect who fled on foot.

Justin Ferrari, the driver killed in the Thursday Central District shooting, is Seattle’s 15 homicide victim this year. That's an especially high number for a city that for the last two years had a homicide rate comparable to the 1950s, and police have added emphasis patrols to try and curb gun violence.

The number of Seattle homicides peaked in 1994 when there were 69, according to department data.